Holding Out For a Hero
by smallvillegirl92
Summary: It's been two weeks since she watched Peter and Nathan fly into the sky and explode. Now Claire is determined to find out exactly what happend to Peter. Has he just disappeared, or is he gone forever? PAIRE! Not AU. If you don't like it then don't read it
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER- I do not own Heroes or anything related to it! This disclaimer goes for ALL chapters of this story!**

**_

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_****_Holding Out For a Hero_ - by Smallvillegirl92**

**Chapter One:**

A small gust of wind blew by, causing Claire to shiver. She pulled the blanket closer to her body and gazed back up at the sky.

Two weeks. It had been two weeks since it happened and every night she came out onto the small balcony, which came off of the hotel suite they'd been staying in, and she'd watch the dark sky, hoping that he'd return. But, he hadn't. She didn't want to give up, but she knew deep down that she might never get the chance to see his handsome face again.

Claire sighed audibly. Him. Peter Petrelli. Her hero. She hadn't realized just how much she had gotten used to seeing him. She cared about him so much and she had never gotten the chance to tell him so.

Claire closed her eyes and remembered the day before the explosion. She could still feel his gentle touch as he wiped away her tears. She remembered how his hand had felt so warm against her cheek. She was positive that there had been a spark. And, though she knew that she shouldn't have, she had fallen for Peter Petrelli.

Claire's eyes fluttered back open and she saw something move in the sky. She jumped up from her chair, but was disappointed when she realized that it was just an airplane.

There was a sound behind her and she spun around, finding her brother eyeing her queerly.

"What's your problem lately? Do you have some new, stupid obsession for UFO's?" Lyle remarked.

Claire just sighed. Feeling a hot tear roll down her cheek, she turned back around.

"Lyle, leave you sister alone and go see if you mom needs help with the dishes," HRG said from behind his son.

"But, Dad-"

"Now, Lyle."

"Fine." His shoulders slumped and he disappeared into the suite.

"Claire," HRG started.

"He's really gone, isn't he Dad? He's……he's not coming back?" Her voice cracked and she dropped her head.

"I don't know, Claire-bear."

"I……I just felt like we had bonded. In a way, it seemed like he knew me better than anyone."

Claire turned towards him and he saw the tears streaming down her face. "I miss him, Dad."

HRG wrapped his daughter in a hug. "I know." He put his hand on the back of her head, pulling her close as she cried.

"I-I keep thinking that there was s-something that I could have done to stop him-them from exploding," she whispered through her tears.

"But there wasn't, Claire. There wasn't anything that anyone could have done."

Claire pulled away, wiping her wet cheek with the back of her hand. "I have to make sure he's actually gone. I have to know."

HRG's eyebrows furrowed.

"I want to go back to New York," Claire stated quickly.

"That's out of the question, Claire."

"But, Dad-"

"I said no. It's not safe there. Sylar could still be alive."

"Then it's not safe anywhere!" she objected.

"Claire," HRG said, his tone warning her not to push the matter any farther.

Claire's jaw tensed and she started for the door. "I'm going to help Mom, I'm sure Lyle will be happy to be relieved."

HRG nodded. "Okay."

Claire began to step inside the suite, but stopped when her dad spoke.

"Claire?"

She turned her head back to look at him. "Yeah?"

"Everything's going to be fine."

She hesitated before nodding slowly. "I know."

As Claire walked inside she replayed her father's words in her head. _Everything's going to be fine. _She had a feeling that he was right, but not in the way that **he **meant. She was going to find Peter, whether her dad wanted her to or not.

* * *

Claire listened until she heard her parents go to bed before she slipped out from under her bed covers. She glanced over at her brother and his steady breathing told her that he was sleeping. Claire stepped onto the floor and crouched down so that she could reach under her bed and grab the duffle bag that she had packed earlier that night. 

Claire stood back up and turned towards the door quickly, causing her to trip over the bed frame. To her dismay, it made a loud "thunk" and she stopped abruptly, desperately hoping that she hadn't woken her brother up. No such luck.

"Claire?" came her brother's groggy voice.

Great. "Yeah, Lyle?" she whispered.

"What are you doing? It's like one o'clock in the morning." He paused, frowning. "Do you have your coat on?" He sat up, peering though the dark to scan his sister's outfit.

"Lyle, be quiet. Mom and Dad will hear you."

"So? Where are you going?"

She approached Lyle's bed. "Please don't tell them, Lyle."

"Tell them what?"

Claire glanced towards the door cautiously, before replying, "I'm going back to New York."

"What?!?"

Claire clamped her hand against her brother's mouth, silencing him. "Lyle! I said be quiet." She held her hand there for a couple minutes, listening for any sign that her parents had woken up. When she didn't hear anything, she pulled her hand away. "I'm begging you, Lyle, please don't wake them up. I'll give you a note to give them. I just….I have to do this."

Lyle hesitated noticeably, but finally sighed and nodded. "Fine, I won't wake them up, just give me the note."

Claire's face creased with a relieved smile. "Thank you so much." She pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket. "Here it is." She began to walk back to the door, but Lyle stopped her. "Claire, wait." He hurried over to her. "Be careful, sis." Lyle hugged her quickly.

Claire was surprised by the gesture, but she smiled and hugged him back. "I will, Lyle, I promise."

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**Hey! So, I just got the urge to do this story the other night. I LOVE Paire and I'm desperately hoping that they'll un-relate them. But, while I'm waiting on that(and for season two to come), I'm going to write this story to satisfy me and all you other Paire fans out there! Please review! And ANY flames that say, 'Ew, you're sick, they're related' or anything of that sort, will be ignored. I have just as much right to my opinion as you do to yours!**

**Smallvillegirl92**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! Sorry that it's been a while since I updated! I would like to thank EVERYONE who reviewed the last chapter! I was VERY happy that I got so many! Please R&R!**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Two:**

Lyle hardly got anymore sleep after his sister left, but he dragged himself out of bed as soon as he heard his parents get up.

He took a long, deep breath before slowly pulling the bedroom door open. Surveying the room, he saw his mom standing by the stove in the small kitchenette and his dad sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. The peace and quiet that the room was surrendered to would be completely disrupted as soon as Lyle gave them the news.

He finally managed a nervous, "Morning," and both adults looked at him.

"You're up early," Sandra commented. "I hope you didn't wake your sister, she needs all the sleep she can get."

"Um….s-she's already….awake," he stated, biting his lip.

"Is there something wrong, son?" HRG inquired as he folded his newspaper.

"Claire….Claire's gone," he whispered. His voice was so quiet, he was surprised that he had even heard it.

"What was that, Lyle?" Sandra asked, giving her son her full attention.

Lyle cleared his throat. "Claire's gone, she left this morning."

"What?" HRG quickly got to his feet, he expression sharp.

"She wanted me to give you this," he handed the folded note to his mom, too scared to go too close to his dad.

"You knew she was leaving and you didn't wake us up?!?"

"I couldn't," Lyle shouted suddenly.

"And why not?"

"Because for once in her life, Claire trusted me to help her, and I wasn't about to let her down."

Sandra, who had opened the note, said, "She's gone to find Peter Petrelli."

"I should've known," HRG muttered. "I'm going after her."

Sandra quickly placed a hand on her husband's arm. "I want her here with us as much as you do, but if you go after her, find her, and force her to come home, she's going to resent you for a very long time. And that's **if **you even find her."

"You want me to just let her go?!? It's dangerous out there."

"Right now it's dangerous everywhere."

HRG let out an audible sigh. "That's what Claire said."

Sandra nodded. "It's true. And I think that Claire is more than capable of taking care of herself.

* * *

_Claire turned the corner of a large building and found a bunch of people gathered together. On the other side of the group she made out the top of a police car and an ambulance. Her eyebrows furrowed together. What was going on? She tapped somebody's shoulder and they turned to look at her, their face grim. _

"_What happened? What's going on?" she asked in one breath._

_They merely shook their head. "It was him, he got another one."_

"_Who? What are you talking about?"_

_When the person refused to answer any more of her questions, she started to push her way through the crowd. Claire's heart dropped to her feet when she reached the center._

_There Peter laid, his body limp. The top of his head detached from the rest of his body. "Peter!" she screamed, the horror and desperation evident in her small voice. She crouched down next to him. "You can't leave me, I need you!"_

"_Don't worry; you'll be joining him soon."_

_A chill went up her spine and she turned towards the voice. Sylar!_

Claire's body jerked and her eyes flew open. To her relief, she was still seated on the bus. It had all been a dream, a nightmare. And what a terrible one it was! She let out a shaky sigh. Just the thought of Sylar getting to Peter and….

Claire shivered, not being able to finish that thought. Was Sylar still alive? Would he get to Peter before she did?

She shook her head firmly. No. She wouldn't allow herself to think like that. Peter would be just fine when she found him. He had to be.

* * *

Claire grabbed her duffle from the overhead and made her way down the narrow aisle. She smiled politely and paid the bus driver before getting out. A large hotel loomed in front of her. It was so big that it made her feel as inferior as an ant must feel to a person. She raised her eyebrows and thought, _and this is the cheapest hotel? I'd hate to see a more expensive one._

Claire threw her duffle bag and her purse over her shoulder and pushed through the revolving doors. When she reached the check-in counter, she hesitantly pulled her dad's credit card out of her wallet and handed it to the receptionist. He probably hadn't even realized that she had taken it yet.

Claire took in all the people that surrounded her. There were businessmen working on their expensive laptops and talking on their fancy cell phones, young couples that had 'just married' written across their enthusiastic faces, and families that had probably traveled there to see all of the famous landmarks and take in the whole feel of New York.

But, none of them seemed to be aware of the darkness that the city was trapped in, the evil that lurked in every crick and corner of the place. They all just seemed so….oblivious.

Claire sighed audibly. _Lucky them, _she thought, _whoever said 'ignorance is bliss', was an absolute genius._

* * *

After getting to her room, she tossed down her bag and collapsed onto the bed. She hadn't been laying there for even a minute, when an up-beat tune erupted from her cell phone. She groaned and retrieved the device from her purse.

Sure enough, it was who she thought it would be, her dad.

Claire bit her lip, she knew that she had to talk to him sometime……

She debated for a minute, but finally sent the incoming call to her voicemail. She couldn't talk to him. He was sure to try and talk her into coming home, but she wasn't going to, not yet. Not until she found Peter.

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**I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Please, please, PLEASE review! LOL! I would really appreciate it! **

**Smallvillegirl92**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

Peter's eyes slowly opened and he groggily surveyed his surroundings. The room was well lit, but almost completely empty. Peter's only company was a smashed cardboard box that lay about four feet away from him. Where in the world was he?

Frowning, he tried to remember what had happened after the explosion in the sky, but nothing came to mind. Had someone kidnapped him?

He shifted, but the movement caused pain in his feet and he looked down to see why.

Peter took a sharp intake of breath when he saw animal traps clamped over his feet. If he even tried to move, the sharp item would surely pierce his skin. Though he would instantly heal from it, he knew that the pain would be awful.

He strained his eyes to try and read the label that was on the cardboard box, hoping that it would have an address or something, but the letters proved to be too small to read from his position.

Looking down at his wrists, which were tied to the arms of the chair, he closed his eyes. Niki had super-strength, so he had to have absorbed it when she had helped him with Sylar. If he only concentrated, maybe he could pull his hands free.

He squeezed his eyelids tighter and pulled his arms up with all the strength he could muster.

Relief flooded through him as he felt his hands come free of the ropes. He smiled triumphantly and quickly opened his eyes. The smile disappeared instantly and was replaced by a frown of confusion.

Instead of sitting in the empty room, he was now standing right in the middle of Time Square. He had teleported himself! He was back home.

His smile returned and he began to jog down the sidewalk, heading straight for his apartment. He had to call everyone and tell them that he was okay………he had to tell Claire.

Smiling wider at the thought of seeing the young blond again, he encouraged his feet to move even faster. The people around him grumbled angrily has he pushed through the crowd, but he barely heard them. His brain was focused on one thing, seeing and talking to the people that he loved. Right now nothing else mattered.

As his apartment building came into view, he let out a sigh of relief and slowed to a walk. The distance from time square to this building had seemed so much farther than it usually did, but he had finally arrived.

Just as he turned the last corner, he caught sight of a familiar figure walking in the other direction. The beat of his heart sped up and he quickly called out her name. She jerked around to face the direction in which he was standing, her eyes searching the crowd. He was so sure that she would see him, but after a long look, he saw her shoulders drop and she turned back around.

He called her name again, but this time she didn't respond. It was almost as if he was invisible.

A light suddenly came on in his brain. That's it! He was invisible.

Smiling to himself, he quickly concentrated on showing himself, so that Claire would be able to see him. He closed his eyes and when he thought he had done it, he opened them again.

"NO!" he yelled as he realized that he had teleported himself yet again and was now back in the bright, empty room.

After trying and trying to teleport himself back to New York, he discovered something terribly upsetting. He couldn't control his powers. The only way that he would be able to get back home again was if it was an accident.

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Claire sighed in frustration as she walked away from Peter's apartment building. She hadn't been able to convince the owner to let him into Peter's apartment to look around. No matter what she had told the man, he gave the same stiff answer: NO. So now she was going to have to try some other way to get into the apartment. She knew that the place where Peter lived probably wouldn't hold any answers for her quest, but for some reason she just had to get in there. Maybe it was because her head was giving her false hope, or maybe it was just because she missed him and she longed to see things that belonged to him. Clothes, pictures, books; anything that would remind her of him. 

Just as her tears were about to spill over, she heard it. She heard that familiar voice call her name.

Claire spun on her heel and scanned the crowd to see if she could find the face that matched the voice. There were so many people, but none of them wore shaggy black hair and a crooked smile like Peter did. Summing it up to her tired mind playing tricks on her, she turned back around and hurried through the crowd of people.

Claire was halfway back to her hotel room when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck beginning to stand up as if someone was watching her. She cautiously glanced over her shoulder, but quickly realized that it wouldn't be too easy to see if anyone in particular was following her. She thought about how nice it must be for the people that had the ability to be invisible.

When she was safely locked inside her hotel room, she collapsed onto the bed with a deep sigh. Why would someone be watching her?

The answer that she came up with wasn't one that made her happy and she quickly pulled out her cell phone. It was time to call her dad.

"Hello," came his deep, familiar voice.

Claire took a deep breath and hesitated, before saying, "Hi, Dad."

"Claire, where are you? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Dad. How's Mom and Lyle?" She tried to keep her voice calm, but she really wanted to just ask him about her suspicions.

"How's Mom and Lyle?" HRG repeated, his voice raising a notch. "You took off to find some guy that you barely know, scaring your mother and me half to death, and you're calmly asking 'How's Mom and Lyle'?"

"Dad, Peter isn't just some guy," she defended, her father's words causing her to get angrier than she already was. "He saved my life and I'm not just going to try and forget about him when he could be in trouble." She heard her dad sigh, obviously trying to calm himself down.

"Claire, I want to know where you are right now?"

Claire rolled her eyes even though she knew that he couldn't see the action. "You shouldn't even have to ask that question, Dad. I know that you have The Hatian watching my every move."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Claire. I haven't ordered The Hatian to do anything."

His voice was smooth, neutral, which made it impossible for Claire to tell whether he was lying or not. A lump formed in her throat as she thought about what it would mean if he was telling the truth. Was someone else following her? Sylar perhaps?

No, Sylar was dead. She shouldn't let a nightmare effect the way that she thought.

"Claire?" Her dad prompted. "Do you want to tell me what this is all about?"

Claire sighed. "Not right now, Dad. I don't have the time." She paused. "I'll call again soon, but right now I have to go. Tell Mom and Lyle that I love them."

"Bu, Claire-"

Claire cut him off by snapping her phone shut.

The room suddenly felt cold, as if there was a draft coming from the window. She stood up and crossed the room to where the window was built into the wall. But, the chill that went up her spine when she didn't find anything that would be causing a draft was far colder than any breeze could ever be.

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**Sorry that it's been so long since I've updated!! I hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter!! PLEASE REVIEW!!**

**-Smallvillegirl92**


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